Limoncello Delicatessen is a small Italian shop downtown Szentendre (Hungary) named after a lemon-flavored liqueur for some reason. They sell really good coffee, ice-cream and a wide sort of premium Italian grocery.
I visit the place quite frequently because of the truly remarkable coffee they make which is quite unusual in Hungary unfortunately.
I have quickly realized that this place is a really good spot for portrait photography as many nice and interesting people used to come together here. On top of it, a huge white wall on the opposite side of this narrow street acts as the perfect reflector many times during sunny days. As I almost exclusively shoot using available light, this is a really nice feature to have.
I shoot people only who I know enough as I don’t want to ruin the business by acting as a paparazzi. Still, I have managed to put together a small pile of portraits already I shoot there. I think the shoots can reflect a bit of the atmosphere of the place as well as the emotions and personality of these lovely people I asked being model back.
This time all images are digital, but as usual, you can find the names of some manual lenses among the descriptions of the images.
Péter (Limoncello, Szentendre, Hungary) Canon EOS 450D, CZJ Pancolar 80mm f/1.8 @ f/1.8
Péter (Limoncello, Szentendre, Hungary) Canon EOS 450D, CZJ Pancolar 80mm f/1.8 @ f/1.8
Ferenc (Limoncello, Szentendre, Hungary) Canon EOS 450D, CZJ Pancolar 80mm f/1.8 @ f/1.8
Péter és Ferenc (Limoncello, Szentendre, Hungary) Canon EOS 450D, CZJ Pancolar 80mm f/1.8 @ f/1.8
The following collage is published here in color for the reason that colors really contribute to the overall look and sensation of these images which I missed so much when I tried to make good a B&W version. The matching colors of her eyes and the scarf, as well as the warm tone of the hair light on the left image, were obliviously last at every attempt of B&W conversion.
Eszter (Limoncello, Szentendre, Hungary) Canon EOS 450D, Hansa 135mm f/2.8 @ f/4
I admire very much photographers who are able to do street photography of any kind either shooting invisibly or by asking strangers for a photo. Although I love these kinds of photographs I did not dare to do anything like this, therefore. As you have probably noticed already I shoot my friends and relatives most of the times as the same persons appear many times on my blog. All in all, talking to and taking photos of strangers is somewhat natural for some but for most of us including myself it is a challenge.
This is fine actually, but I always try to do new things and find challenges in my photography and the temptation of getting wonderful shots on the street raised so high that eventually I asked someone for a photo and hopefully I will keep doing this practice.
It was easier than I thought, nothing bad had happened, he was very friendly and allowed me to take the shoots below. As you can see he is a musician playing guitar in many places like this underpass I used to walk through regularly.
I know this is not really a traditional street shoot but can be considered as a street portrait similar to those Ade used to shoot with his medium format Pentax and publish on STREET PORTRAITIST blog I really like.
The camera I used is the latest member of my collection an Olympus OM 4Ti with a stellar Zuiko 50mm f/1.4 lens. It was the very first roll of film I moved trough of this little thing and I am quite happy with the results.
Gábor (Szentendre, Hungary), Olympus OM 4Ti, Zuiko 50mm f/1.4, Kodak Gold 200, Canoscan 9900FGábor (Szentendre, Hungary), Olympus OM 4Ti, Zuiko 50mm f/1.4, Kodak Gold 200, Canoscan 9900FGábor (Szentendre, Hungary), Olympus OM 4Ti, Zuiko 50mm f/1.4, Kodak Gold 200, Canoscan 9900F
My last post about portraits (Portraits round 1) featured black and white photographs. Black and white often help simplify things by skipping the colors and thus resulting in a cleaner image focused more on geometry, composition, and effects of light and shadows. Many times this monochromatic approach emphasizes important properties which would have been otherwise overwhelmed by the chaotic world of colors and can be greatly beneficial. While I love the more abstract nature of the B&W images, I also admire the emotional power of the colors. Sometimes a photo just works better in color.
I am quite fed up with the long, cold and dark winter here so now I am starting to see and use some colors. Besides this post is a post about portraiture it is a small celebration of colors hoping that spring will come soon.
Unfortunately, I had less time to take pictures recently, therefore this selection is composed of my old works exclusively. The photos are taken in many different locations and seasons using various films and lenses but with the same old Pentacon Six of mine.
Color negative film
If you want to take portraits in color, negative film is probably the best choice. It is usually less prone to exposure issues than positive (dia) film so it can accept slight over or underexposure without serious problems on the final image. Also, these films are not as contrasty and vivid as most positive films (except Kodak Ektar which I have never tried so far) so the images are smoother and it is often a good point in the case of general portraits.
It is also very easy to make black and white images out of a color version so you have the flexibility to change your mind during post-processing.
Positive films are generally recommended for natural product and architectural shoots. At least this is what I have heard a lot. But of course many uses dia film for portraits as well. For example, the famous photographer Steve McCurry used to shoot on positive film and took fabulous portraits like the Afghan Girl.
I personally like to use these films for portraits because of the character and the fact that they have the finest grain ever. But this is true that lights and shadows have more contrast, the exposure must be bloody accurate and overall you have to be very precise to achieve a good result. In addition, it is not too easy to find a lab where you can get it developed especially if you shoot medium format or bigger.
At the bottom line, I think it is still worth to shoot positive films regardless of the subject because the view of the developed dia film makes you happy as a kid at Christmas for sure. You get the final (not inverted) image. Because it gets visible by the light passing through the film rather than reflecting it. That is why dia has a huge dynamic range which makes the experience (in my opinion) kind of better than reality.
L (Budapest, Hungary), Pentacon Six TL, Biometar 80mm, Fuji Velvia 100 , Cannoscan 9900FSelf (Girona, Catalonia), Pentacon Six TL, Biometar 80mm, Fuji Velvia 100 , Cannoscan 9900FM (Hatvan, Hungary), Pentacon Six TL, Biometar 80mm, Kodak Ektachrome 100 , Cannoscan 9900F
Portraiture is a very exciting branch of photography probably because of its subject. It is indeed a very ancient and natural thing to depict our fellowman. Therefore an enormous amount of portraits has been created over history and especially nowadays.
Most likely this is the reason why portraiture is not easy to do well, fortunately, all of us genetically attracted to faces. People are hard-coded to recognize human faces virtually everywhere and in anything even if there are only a few random craters and some shadows on the surface of a dead planet.
I also do love good portraits, and I am generally taking a lot as well. Unfortunately, I am not as good as I wish to be.
It is rather hard to catch the moment of emotion in the right composition among proper lights to get a really special portrait. In addition, as it is an interactive process you have to be connected to the other human-being on a level which is challenging and exciting at the same time.
This is overall very rewarding for me and I am going to keep shooting portraits for sure, hopefully on a higher and higher level.
I was planning to post some of my portraits here for a long time ago, but on the other hand, I decided to push myself to publish new works as much as possible.
Finally, the time has come and I have developed a few rolls of film a few days ago. So now I have some new photos which I will mix up with a few not so new ones.
The recent shoots caused a quite a bit of excitement because as always everything was experimental. I have tested a new focusing screen in my Pentacon Six as well as 2 new types of film (Fuji Across 100, Lomo Lady Gray 400) and this was the first time I used Kodak D76 developer.
It turned out all good, however, there were lessons to learn again.
Some new shoots
Nico (Girona, Spain), Pentacon Six, Biometar 80mm, Fuji Across 100, Kodak D76, Cannoscan 9900FSavE (Girona, Spain) Pentacon Six, Biometar 80mm, Fuji Across 100, Kodak D76, Cannoscan 9900FPaolo (Prato, Italy) Pentacon Six, Biometar 80, Fuji Across 100, Kodak D76, Cannoscan 9900FHunor and Tibor (Szentendre, Hungary), Pentacon Six, Biometar 80mm, Lomo Lady Gray 400, Kodak D76, Cannoscan 9900F
Some not so new shoots
These two pictures were among those I shoot on my first few rolls and developed myself around 2007-2008. The guy was my roommate during the university and these were taken in our kitchen next to a big window.
By the way, he is also a photographer and shooting film too from time to time. He is the founder of a really nice blog called 100ASA.
Holló (Miskolc, Hungary), Zenit E, Helios 44, Forte 100, Forte developer, Cannoscan 9900FHolló (Miskolc, Hungary), Zenit E, Helios 44, Forte 100, Forte developer, Cannoscan 9900FGabi (Gyöngyössolymos, Hungary), Cosina CSM, Cosinon 55mm, Forte 100, Cannoscan 9900F
Final words
Naturally there are many more portraits in my collection which deserve a frame in this blog and certainly many will show up. I only need to find the occasion and the context to merge them with recent works and publish. But hey this is only the round 1. I hope some of these cached your eye.
camerajunky 